N&O: Holland willing to wait

Today's News & Observer report seems to contradict the P&C story about Danny Ford:

GREENVILLE — John Thompson didn't have enough time to rebuild East Carolina's football program, but the Pirates were so hapless and beyond repair under the former head coach that he had to go anyway, athletics director Terry Holland said Tuesday.

He said he obviously would like to secure a current successful Division I-A head coach who would be able to bring in some members of his current staff and hit the ground running.

But, he noted, one of those is hard to find.

"As I've studied searches from the past five or six years, I don't see many people that hire successful Division I head coaches," Holland said. "You protect your coaches."

He seemed to downplay the chances of ECU picking a coach who has not coached for some time.

"Normally, there's a pretty good reason they're out of the game," he said. "Some do come back, and do it successfully; others do it moderately successfully. What kind of staff can they put together now that they've been out of the game for so long?"

Holland, who came to ECU this fall from Virginia, added that difficulty in finding a top college coach isn't always a bad thing. For example, he noted that Virginia (Al Groh), Southern California (Pete Carroll) and Georgia Tech (Chan Gailey) all turned to NFL coaches.

"The problem with the NFL is that they're very serious about their football," Holland said. " ... You're probably not going to get to talk to those people until their season is over.

"That doesn't mean you're not willing to wait, but if they get into the playoffs, can you wait until the Super Bowl is over to hire your coach?"

Holland also said that because ECU is on the hook for as much as $650,000 through 2007 for Thompson and former head coach Steve Logan, the school's boosters will have to contribute more and the university may have to increase the Pirates' athletics budget. Pirate Club director Dennis Young said the athletics annual budget is currently $18 million.

Thompson, who finished his two years at ECU with a 3-20 record, had never been a head coach when he was hired after spending one year as Florida's defensive coordinator.

Under Thompson, Holland said, the Pirates didn't move forward and show improvement. ECU is one of only two Division I-A teams to surrender 50 or more points four times this season, Western Michigan is the other.

Holland said he decided to fire Thompson with two games remaining in the season because ECU seemed to be stalled in an awful place.

"Is two years long enough for a coach? No, absolutely not. Not to establish a program," Holland said.

"But within the two-year period, you have to be showing progress in certain areas that have to allow your contract to be extended. The worse your record is during that time, the more focus there's going to be on that."

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